Incubator’s Decision-Making Policies

How an organization makes decisions is everything. Top down management is to be avoided at all costs but going off vibes and hoping things work out is just as foolish.

Incubator, like any organization, benefits from having clear decision-making procedures in place.

And it starts with how many people are making the decision…

1. The ideal group size is 6

Incubator’s committees are made up of 6 people. Every new Accelerator cohort is 6 people. More groups of 6 will emerge over time. This is because when trying to accomplish a goal or make any decision, 6 is the optimal group size.

• 2 people is bound to end in a stalemate. What if they don’t agree? There’s no one to help break ties or provide new insights.
• 3 people usually ends up with one person the odd man out. There’s a reason monogamy is so popular. 3 people has an inherent imbalance to it.
• 4 people has a similar problem. There’s likely to be 1 person who’s socially outcast from the group and there’s not enough people for that person to turn anywhere else. 
• 5 people is not enough to bring the wisdom of a crowd, but it’s enough for permanent factions to form. Shit talking may ensue. 
• 6 people is enough that brings with it a crowd’s natural wisdom. It may have factions, but there’s enough people for these configurations to oscillate and evolve over time.
• 7 people in a room is a lot of people. It’s hard to keep track of opinions and have productive discussions with so many people at once. With 7+ people, you’re going to have introverts fade into the background. And you need introverts’ active involvement to make wise collective decisions.

6 people is truly the goldilocks number for group projects and decision-making.

2. Voting is blind

People can influence each other’s opinions, but should they? There’s a time for discussion, but when it comes to voting, I’d like to hear everyone’s opinion untainted by anyone else’s.

6 people looking at a topic from 6 different perspectives is a beautiful thing. Blind voting allowe these 6 opinions to be delivered in tact, without them being too influenced by other people’s actions or opinions.

3. Healthy detachment from the issue is encouraged

What kind of relationship should the people making a decision have with the topic they’re make a decision about? 

They should obviously have relevant information about the topic and the people it affects, but they shouldn’t be so close to the action that they’re significantly personally affected by the outcome of the vote. If they have a personal vested interest, it’s liable to cloud their judgement through cognitive biases.

In other words, the deciders should care but not too much. This provides a balance of clarity and detachment that results in optimal decisions.

At Incubator, committees are how we achieve this. Committee members often know people in Incubator. A lot of them have performed here. But the majority have never been here. They know about Incubator but they’re not personally invested in it.

This range averages out to an ideal level of detachment. The committee members have emotional distance but still care about the outcome.

How an organization makes decisions is everything

When trying to build an activated, democratic community that allows any member to make decisions on its behalf, the decision-making processes are vital.

As time goes on, blind voting in groups of 6 (with healthy detachment built in) will hopefully allow Incubator to take decisive action that’s in line with the will of the Incubator community as a whole.